Spanish architect Josep Llus Sert (1902-1983) is perhaps best known for his build ings and urban-scale

projects. As a member of GATEPAC ("Group of Spanish Archite cts and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture"), he was conc erned with the role of architects in city planning. And yet he was also a master of small-scale interior and furniture design. Some of his favorite forms were i nspired by vernacular houses. Editor Sert's own house at Punta Martinet was part of a cluster of nine houses built on a cape on the island of Ibiza, Spain between 1968 and 1971. He reinterpreted th e island's vernacular architecture which had long fascinated him. The six houses he designed are all different, each responding to its own program and topograph y. The existing stone terraces were conserved, giving the complex the air of an indigenous village. During his mature phase, Sert was clearly a Spartan interior designer, a creator of spaces of unquestionable visual beauty with a minimum of artifacts or identi fiable pieces as individual objects. These spaces were motivated by a remarkable proportional coherence and were gene rally free of any rhetorical whim that might refer either to the past or to what was currently in vogue. Furnishings were subordinated as much as possible to th e architecture, with the exception of certain classic pieces such as Thonet chai rs and armchairs, or those from the traditional repertoire: either American Wind sor chairs or the ones used in the peasant houses on Ibiza. Walls and ceilings were consistently painted in white, thus becoming neutral pic torial backgrounds that enabled chromatic accents to be provided by carpets, tap estries, and especially paintings, which commanded all the attention of the vert ical plane. Objects with volume, such as ceramic pieces or statuettes, were placed on ledges or in recesses, also designed to break the vertical plane. Hence, the strategic placing of paintings and objects always responded to aesthetic reasons, no matt er what their monetary or sentimental value, and dominated the visual effect fro m their preeminent position. Integrating the Object The immediate victims of Sert's purging of all historical furniture were the pie ces with individual names: buffet, chest, cupboard, chest of drawers, etc. These were type-objects originally formed in accordance with their function and the b est construction method, and which, owing to their very autonomous nature, had i nevitably been made to play out their roles in the distinct decorative style of each historical period. For example, when 18th-century eclecticism also made its way into interiors, a v ariety of styles coexisted, depending on the rooms and the whim or extravagance of the owner of the house. This exacerbated the ornamental weight of the piece o f furniture and diminished its practical value, which only the simplest and olde st versions in remote country houses managed to maintain. Restraint and emptiness were among the overall tendencies of the interior archit ecture by GATCPAC members: their reaction to the eclecticism of the period and t he excesses in ornaments, tapestries, and draperies which so characterized Art N ouveau. One of the earliest symptoms of this attitude of rejection was the abund ance of built-in furnishings. Aside from the space that these saved, in Sert's case one could go so far as to speak of a refusal, or at least a reluctance, to design any independent object s egregated from an architectural medium. His work includes numerous examples of m

asonry furniture, either freestanding or wall-attached, and designs of wooden fu rnishings treated like masonry, on account of their whiteness and the unusual th ickness of their shelves. Brick Fireplaces It was in the small residential development of Punta Martinet where white brick fireplaces took on a significant role. Their position was repeated in five of th e six houses, always at the connecting point between the beginning of a staircas e or hallway and the living room, so that the latter was approached by circling the fireplace. This feature is surprisingly shared by the famous "prairie houses" of Frank Lloy d Wright, which are yet so different in silhouette and layout. The fireplace hea rth always faced the longest dimension of the room and consisted entirely of a n umber of ledges and shelves that joined it to the wall. In this way, it closed off the space without opacity at its shorter end. It shou ld be added that the living rooms in all these houses are rectangular spaces tha t run parallel to a terrace with a view, so that one side is completely glazed. The design of the different fireplace variations is characterized by a compositi on of spaces and solids controlled by regulatory outlines, like a facade. In fac t, Sert used this ordering device in the majority of his shelf and fireplace des igns, where there were potential sections with vertical and horizontal lines for either constructive or functional purposes. Wall Benches Wall-attached benches are a clear case of furniture design being subordinated to architecture. The fireplaces of the houses at Punta Martinet were always accomp anied by masonry benches that lined the entire wall to which the chimney was joi ned. This feature was clearly inspired by the traditional peasant houses of Ibiz a, in which both the porxo, or porch, and the living room (often a porch which f ound itself indoors, when surrounded by new rooms), always included a long bench . The bench's function was multiple, as it was used without distinction for family meals, community work, and receiving visits, even for the festeig or courtship of girls of marrying age. Because, conceptually speaking, it was so closely link ed to the wall support and so little restricted to seating, the bench mass was o ccasionally broken up with carved steps to help reach the adjoining rooms, smoot hing the changes in level inside the peasant houses. This is one of the most attractive features of traditional lbizan houses: they g rew over time, through a modular system, by which cases, or attached rooms, were added to the walls of the existing house with scarcely any effort made to level them out. Given the fascination which lbizan peasant houses had for Sert and his GATEPAC c olleagues, it should come as no surprise that the architect introduced this benc h typology into the main room of each of his houses on the island, which on the other hand, stood out for their perfectly contemporary organization of space. But what is most astonishing about these benches, long enough to amply surpass t he useful size for the domestic get-together, is their abstract condition of min imal yet rhetorical elements, like a bend in the wall or a baseboard that just h appens to let one sit down on it. Their usefulness was only made complete when the entire space was full of people

, as occurs during a crowded gathering, when, after the living room area fills u p, guests spill over onto the terrace, which in each of these houses is an openair replica of the living room, with the two running parallel. What we have then is an enormous bench covered with large made-to-measure cushio ns, thus increasing the comfort of its Ibizan predecessor. It encourages social life by responding to a living room concept much more open and democratic than t he classic urban three-piece suite which, while more or less spacious, invariabl y leads to conversational crossfire. It is hardly surprising that Sert decided to add Ibiza-inspired benches to his t wo houses in the United States (albeit with a wooden structure) 20 years before doing so to the houses at Punta Martinet.